Whatever happened to the Tau Ceti aliens? Pt 2

After posting on the forums the problem encountered yesterday has been sorted and a MK 2 version of the Gateway military jump tender has been designed:

Gateway MK 2 class Jump Tender 5400 tons 392 Crew 713.4 BP TCS 108 TH 240 EM 0
2222 km/s JR 4-50 Armour 6-27 Shields 0-0 Sensors 25/25/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 58% IFR: 0.8% Maint Capacity 1330 MSP Max Repair 144 MSP Est Time: 5.14 Years

J5500(4-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 5500 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 4
Ion Engine E8 Military (4) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 83.3 billion km (434 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR75-R150 (1) GPS 15000 Range 75.0m km Resolution 150
Thermal Sensor TH5-25 (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km
EM Detection Sensor EM5-25 (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Once the MK 1 has been retrofitted we can finally probe the Tau Ceti system. Also a second survey group has been put together to allow exploration of two systems at a time and the jump gate linking Luyten 726-8 with Gliese 892. Colonisation of Luyten 726-8 A II will now commence as the system has lots of minable minerals which will be required as time moves on.

12th September 2048

Survey group 1 discovers the Gliese 96 system and a survey is started. Survey group 2 are ordered to complete the survey of EZ Aquarii.

15th September 2048

Research completes into active grav sensor 21 which allows us to design sensors with greater ranges and sensitivity. Based on this new tech the following active sensor is designed:

Active Sensor Strength: 210 Sensitivity Modifier: 50%
Sensor Size: 10 HS Sensor HTK: 1
Primary Mode: Resolution: 200 Maximum Range: 210,000,000 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 210 Crew: 50
Materials Required: 52.5x Duranium 157.5x Uridium

Development Cost for Project: 2100RP

Once research completes this will replace the current active sensors on all ships and PDC's.

24th September 2048

Survey group 2 discover the Ross 780 system and a grav and geosurvey is started.

4th October 2048

The first jump point is found in the Ross 780 system.

19th October 2048

The retooling to the Gateway MK 2 completes and the refit is started this should complete by June 2049. Hopefully the new sensors can be installed on the Sunstrike command craft this will make our chance of detecting the aliens in the Tau Ceti system much better.

30th October 2048

The first unexplored jump point is found in the Gleise 96 system.

20th November 2048

The Paradise terraforming ship completes and moves to Mar to start terraforming operations.

21st November 2048

Two new jump points found in the Ross 780 system. Also terraforming starts on Mars with the addition of Oxygen to the atmosphere.

Oops just realised you need to build jump gates at both sides of a jump point oh well as I said before this is all a learning curve and anyone reading this will hopefully not make the same mistake.

15th January 2049

The survey of Ross 780 system completes and three unexplored jump points are discovered. The geosurvey results are as follows:

Rocky Planets: 2 Surveyed: 2
Gas Giants: 2 Surveyed: 2
Moons: 24 Surveyed: 24
Asteroids: 36 Surveyed: 0

Ross 780-A I
Sorium 290,820,000 Acc: 1

Ross 780-A III
Boronide 627,264 Acc: 0.1
Vendarite 17,438,980 Acc: 0.8
Uridium 6,718,464 Acc: 0.1

17th February 2049

Survey completes of Gleise 96 one unexplored jump point is found again the mineral survey is below:

Rocky Planets: 3 Surveyed: 2
Gas Giants: 4 Surveyed: 4
Moons: 79 Surveyed: 69
Asteroids: 114 Surveyed: 0

Gleise 96-A V - Moon 23
Uridium 571,536 Acc: 0.9

Gleise 96-A VI - Moon 15
Duranium 2,860,832 Acc: 0.8
Corbomite 5,184,729 Acc: 1
Boronide 3,136,441 Acc: 0.6

13th May 2049

Survey group 1 discovered the Upsilon Andromedae system and we finally find a colonisable planet. The second planet orbiting the B star has a colony cost of 2.05 which is very good I will aim to colonise as soon as possible the only downside is the distance from the home system which will make defense difficult.

27th June 2049

The retrofit of the Gateway military jump tender completes and the exploration of the Tau Ceti system can now begin. The Gateway craft is given order to proceed to the Tau Ceti jump point.

3rd August 2049

finally the Tau Ceti jump point is transitted by a fleet of four craft. On entering the system the immediate area around the Sol jump point is quiet nothing detected. The fleet starts moving towards the planetary systems.

7th August 2049

Halfway to the waypoint set and still no sign of contact.

10th August 2049

Active sensors have picked up a Spider class alien craft at a range of 144 m/km at 20:04 a new contact is picked up a Marshal class alien craft. At 20:17 we detect and open fire on an Anubis alien craft the estimated tonnage is 24,000. I've managed to target the Anubis but due to there ECM my fire range has been reduced to 57,600,000k km so we are closing range. At 63,000,000 k km we pick up a new thermal contact strength 16 which I think may be missiles on the system map it shows up as 16 * 20 so I guess it's 20 missiles damn. There closing fast at 31,799 km/s. The missiles hit at 20:44 and all where aimed at the Gateway which is damaged and detaches from the fleet but it's not destroyed. We are still out of range not sure why my anti-missile ship didn't shoot any down. At 20:45 another 20 missiles are picked up and still I'm unable to target them with my anti-missile ship.

At 20:45 the Gateway craft is destroyed and 147 survivors make it to the lifepods including Commander Louis Wilson. This now means we have now way to return to Sol so things are looking bad. 20 more missiles detected at 20:46 and the crew are starting to panic.

Well thats 's all for tonight I have tons of questions but at least I've experienced my first real combat.